CREATINE LOADING DOES NOT INTERFERE WITH CARBOHYDRATE LOADING

Arnall, D. A., Nelson, A. G., Kokkonen, J., Day, R., & Evans, J. (1999). Creatine loading does not inhibit glycogen loading. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 31(5), Supplement abstract 1281.

"Both creatine loading and glycogen loading have been shown to improve performance of either high intensity short duration exercise (creatine) or low intensity long duration exercise (glycogen). Interestingly, increase entry of either creatine or glycogen into a muscle cell upsets the cell's osmotic balance and requires additional quantities of water to be stored. Since the available storage space with a cell is limited, we questioned whether a person could sequentially load muscle with creatine and glycogen." (p. S264)

Males (N = 12) loaded with creatine (20 g/day) for five days which increased muscle cell creatine by 35%. On the sixth day, a glycogen depletion exercise was performed. That was followed by three days of light activity and a high carbohydrate diet.

The mean increase in muscle glycogen content was greater than 50%, suggesting that a person can successfully load both creatine and glycogen.

Implication. Creatine loading does not interfere with carbohydrate loading.

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